The Ballad of Lucy Whipple [Hardcover]

Karen Cushman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 16, 1996

In 1849 a twelve-year-old girl who calls herself Lucy is distraught when her mother moves the family from Massachusetts to a small California mining town. There Lucy helps run a boarding house and looks for comfort in books while trying to find a way to return "home."

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

When California Morning Whipple's widowed mother uproots her family from their comfortable Massachusetts environs and moves them to a rough mining camp called Lucky Diggins in the Sierras, California Morning resents the upheaval. Desperately wanting to control something in her own life, she decides to be called Lucy, and as Lucy she grows and changes in her strange and challenging new environment. Here Karen Cushman helps the American Gold Rush spring to colorful life, just as she did for medieval England in her previous two books, Catherine, Called Birdy and The Midwife's Apprentice, which won Newbery Honor status and a Newbery Medal respectively. For ages 8-12.

From Publishers Weekly

In a voice so heartbreakingly bitter that readers can taste her homesickness, California Morning Whipple describes her family's six-year stay in a small mining town during the Gold Rush. Her mother, a restless widow with an acid tongue, has uprooted her children from their home in Massachusetts to make a new life in Lucky Diggins. California rebels by renaming herself Lucy and by hoarding the gold dust and money she earns baking dried apple and vinegar pies, saving up for a journey home. Over years of toil and hardship, Lucy realizes, somewhat predictably, that home is wherever she makes one. As in her previous books, Newbery Award winner Cushman (The Midwife's Apprentice) proves herself a master at establishing atmosphere. Here she also renders serious social issues through sharply etched portraits: a runaway slave who has no name of his own, a preacher with a congregation of one, a raggedy child whose arms are covered in bruises. The writing reflects her expert craftsmanship; for example, Lucy's brother Butte, dead for lack of a doctor, is eulogized thus: "He was eleven years old, could do his sums, and knew fifty words for liquor." A coming-of-age story rich with historical flavor. Ages 10-14.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Clarion Books; 1St Edition edition (August 16, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395728061
• ISBN-13: 978-0395728062
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,556,274 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Karen Cushman was born in Chicago, Illinois and lives now on Vashon Island west of Seattle, Washington. She received an M.A. in human behavior and one in museum studies. Ms. Cushman has had a lifelong interest in history. She says, "I grew tired of hearing about kings, princes, generals, presidents. I wanted to know what ordinary life was like for ordinary young people in other times." Research into medieval English history and culture led to the writing of her first two novels, the Newbery Honor book CATHERINE, CALLED BIRDY and the Newbery Medal-winner THE MIDWIFE'S APPRENTICE. She is also the author of MATILDA BONE, THE BALLAD OF LUCY WHIPPLE, RODZINA, and most recently ALCHEMY AND MEGGY SWANN.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Karen Cushman's Best, February 24, 2001

A Kid's Review

This review is from: The Ballad of Lucy Whipple (Paperback)

When I was nearly finished with LUCY WHIPPLE my teacher told me that I might be assighned to that book for a book report. But that would have been fine with me, because I enjoyed it so much that I would've been glad to read it again.

LUCY WHIPPLE is set in the mid 1800's, the time of The California Gold Rush. It is about a girl whos mother decides to move from Massachusets to California to search for gold. Unfortunately, Lucy hates the town (Lucky Diggins) they move to, and wants to move back to Massachusets.

This book was funny, original, yet it had some features that every book must have. LUCY WHIPPLE had some sad parts that made me cry. But all books must have something sad. Some authors don't write the sad parts very well, but Cushman did a fabulus job. The ending suprised me, and I'm glad Cushman chose to end it like that. LUCY WHIPPLE is definately on my list of "Books That Everyone Must Read".

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Karen Cushman Does It Again!, July 21, 2003

By 

Allyn "pianogirl" (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Ballad of Lucy Whipple (Paperback)

I'll admit it-since I'm in high school, I'm really quite beyond the "9-12" age range this book targets. But "The Ballad of Lucy Whipple" is just such great fun that the "9-12" categorization should be completely ignored.

Twelve-year-old Lucy Whipple is anything but happy. After her father and youngest sister die, Lucy's mother decides to move herself, Lucy, and siblings Butte, Sierra, and Prairie to a strange and savage Lucky Diggins, California that is right in the middle of the Gold Rush. Deprived of her grandparents, stability, books, and cleanliness, Lucy is desperate to return to her Massachusetts hometown and live with her grandparents. But then somehow, she begins to put down roots in Lucky Diggins, and it becomes more of a home to her than she ever thought possible...

"The Ballad of Lucy Whipple" is as faultless of a so-called "children's book" as you're going to get. Readers will find a lively and interesting heroine in Lucy, and while they may not exactly sympathize with her martyr-like attitude at the book's beginning, they will certainly want to keep reading to find out exactly what happens to Lucy and her family. Humor, tragedy, and everyday life are always attention-keeping in this book; Karen Cushman does a first-rate job of incorporating history into the story-making the historical info seem part of the story rather than simply a boring aspect of the novel. Finally, a well-done and thought-provoking ending cap off Lucy's chronicle.

In the same manner of her previous historical fiction ("Catherine Called Birdy" and "The Midwife's Apprentice"), Cushman effortlessly writes educational AND entertaining tales of ordinary girls in extraordinary times. This is historical fiction at its best.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Walking Lucy's path, October 24, 2005

A Kid's Review

This review is from: The Ballad of Lucy Whipple (Paperback)

I think that "The Ballad of Lucy Whipple" is a very good book because of how clearly the author shows Lucy's personality within the book. Such as when Lucy states "Mama, that gold you claimed is lying in the fields around here must be hidden by all the lizards, dead leaves, and mule droppings, for I can't see a thing worth picking up and taking home." Lucy hates California at first, until she understands the true beauty of it at the end of the book.

I also enjoyed how the story sucks you into a whirlepool of adventure and another world so that you can put yourself in Lucy's shoes and walk her path in the story. Like when the author writes, "Small tents, shacks, and brush-covered lean-tos huddled along one bank of the river." and
"The air, heavy with heaty and dust, burned my nose and stung my eyes."

I recommend this book to people who love adventure, a little humor, and who aren't afraid of history. The Ballad of Lucy Whipple makes you laugh when you least expect it and gives you a taste of gold rush life.